Posted on 09/30/2023 6:40:44 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
This year, during the heat of summer, when temperatures in New York surpassed 90°F, the 22 solar panels on the roof of my house were doing absolutely nothing.
This is not something I learned until September, four months after my husband and I bought this house with a purportedly functional leased solar system in upstate New York, months after logging into a website that inaccurately told us that the panels were working, months after we forked over $6,000 to prepay the remainder of the 20-year lease to the company supposed to be maintaining the solar panels, Spruce Power, which happens to be the largest privately held owner and operator of residential solar in America.
A third-party technician dispatched to our house by Spruce in September blamed squirrels that chewed on some important wires. Spruce blamed the previous owners, who they said fell behind on lease payments; in September, Spruce told us it had disconnected the system previously but that did not explain why they’d taken our money to prepay the lease on the panels in June. The panels are still not working to full capacity. (Made aware that this article was in the works, Spruce said in September that it will repay us for the months the panels were not working.)
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
And yes they do hold up - glass and aluminum are pretty tough with regards to sunshine. Wiring and connectors also tested and listed.
btt
“Just dont fall for the net-metering option without battery backups, power goes out, you go dark too without a $20K battery system.”
I don’t follow that. Are you saying that with a solar system and selling the power back that if the utility power is disrupted that the solar system doesn’t power the house? I honestly don’t know that answer, but it shouldn’t be that way.
This is your world of power distribution. Do net-metering solar systems cut out if utility power is disrupted?
Future business opportunity: “Solar Removal - Free Estimates “
“Sure there are disruptions, but these are temporary disruptions.”
A temporary disruption that lasts days is not acceptable to people who need the electricity. People that have sewer lift pumps and well water systems need 240 volts or else their sewer and water no longer function. A single day’s ‘temporary disruption’ is catastrophic. A 3-7 days ‘temporary disruption’ after a storm can be devastating.
AND there's that, too. :)
Intermittent energy production, will always require a backup that is reliable. The panels are an environmental horror when they wear out, too expensive to recycle in most cases. Only one company in America even tries. Most panels go to landfills. Ugly eyesores too. Makes houses look like little dystopian factory buildings. If they last 15-20 years, that means they have to be removed and reinstalled to put on new roofs. Insanity.
All it takes is one hailstorm and say goodbye to that investment.
—”I’ve done enough homework to know that solar is a horrible choice for whole house energy.”
It all depends on the local buy back agreement from the power company.
If the power company buys your surplus at the retail price you pay and will lock it in for an extended number of years, that is a deal.
A disappearing deal, that costs the power company $$$.
Also the add-on wire maintenance charges...
Do not forget the many inspection fees...
A neighbor has an undocumented solar array that fully charges his Tesla year-round and more.
He received the panels used/free, has a V.O.M. and knows how to use it.
I didn’t read past the exurpt but there are other known problems with solar that make it NOT a install-it and forget-it solution. Like EVs, home solar needs batteries or a charge holding system. These don’t have a relatively long life. You have electrical equipment that do not have infinite lives and require maintenance.
I love the concept of being off the grid, not for the sake of “the environment” (in all it’s loaded meanings) but moreso for the idea of not being dependent of energy monopolies. But there are a log of cons to the pros that you need to be aware of, and you definitely shouldn’t have to be under contract with a solar company if you are trying to get out from under the thumb of an electricity provider.
rooftop solar has been a total scam for decades ...
SolarCity essentially invented the scam in 2006, and ten years later Elon Musk bought the company from his cousins ...
and don’t forget out hail ... i’ve gotten two “free” roofs paid for by my home insurance due to massive hail damage since i’ve lived in Colorado ...
Oh man! It’s the virtue signaling the public is so gullible about. Think about the college educations families are pushing on their kids. They get to brag about their kids studies. Add the government pushing this stuff and it’s a win-win but not for us.
George Carlin: It’s a club and you’re not in it.
The only guarantee is that the solar companies will get paid. Will they install if you don’t own your home?
An analogy: Think of a woman getting laid-hear me out. The sun is on top of you doing what it does early and often. You are the panels lying down and absorbing the joy and warmth as well as energy security. It’s like free sex no consequences. When the night falls you get to go to sleep just like the solar panels. Recharge yourself for tomorrow.
So tell me. Why haven’t any of you thought of it first? Sexism?
“This is really about the dark side of bad corporate behavior. None of this is a problem with solar panels, just the company these people leased from.”
Exactly. Solar is a technology that needs care and maintenance. It will never compete financially with utility power, but that’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to provide power when the utilities go out or are not available.
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I’m not sure I fully agree with your statements. Certainly this story is about corporate dishonesty and greed but, Solar can work and pay for itself albeit over time.
I purchased solar because in my old age I wanted to continue to have air-conditioning and refrigeration after grid disrupting storms. My system allow me to completely disconnect from the grid and continue life normally using my solar cells, batteries and even a generator if the other two don’t do the job. I am however still connected to the grid and send my solar produced electricity to the grid that I don’t use and get it back in the hours after sundown. I don’t want to use my batteries unless I have to, they have a finite life using them to power my home and recharging them every day. Batteries are not cheap and I have a lot of them so that I can go weeks (if not using central air) without sunshine or grid. If I don’t use my batteries they will last decades using them every day I would be lucky to get one decade.
My electric bill is normally about $23.00 which is the base hookup charge. My solar provides all I need until they are covered with snow or it’s raining. It took about 7-1/2 years for my solar to pay for itself, partially because I looked for a long time to get what I wanted at the best possible price and then installing the system myself. Perhaps not everyone could do that. The panels are heavy and you need some familiarity with how a roof is constructed and basic electricity. It helps to have YouTube as your friend. I saved about 1/2 the normal cost doing it myself. I like the independence. Once while disconnecting from the grid to do some work I forgot to turn the grid back on and ran on the batteries in the middle of July for a couple days before I realized I was still disconnected, I couldn’t tell the difference.
Perhaps solar isn’t for everyone but I like it for me.
I drive back and forth from Kentucky to Florida frequently and notice the many acres of fields full of solar panels along Highway I-75, amazing, millions of dollars worth of cells. Perhaps that saves some coal, gas or oil, I don’t know but it seems silly to me for them to do that but someone there must think it saves them money. In the same way my house may look silly but it saves me money.
“Read somewhere that electrical circuits resist current and become less efficient when they become overheated.”
basic electricity 101 ... it’s why house wiring and extension cords need to be sized for the load to be carried and why they have to have bigger wires the longer they are ...
I would be concerned about the roof under those solar panels. The panels add considerable weight to the roof that could be beyond the structural capacity of the trusses especially with a heavy snow load. I would suspicion that in high winds those panels could act like sails and lift from the roof causing damage to the roof or other property if they tore off. I have also heard reports of the shingles becoming rapidly degraded under the panels.
It’s the same old story...
* Lots of federal subsidies plus easily fooled people snookered into “Let’s save the earth” pitches lead to many unscrupulous operators.
* Unscrupulous operators go out of business leaving customers holding the bag
* Fraud claims skyrocket
* The big guys (SunRun, Tesla, SunPower, et al) buy up lots of small, poorly-run companies who only wanted to cash out and make the founders rich
Human nature never changes. Crooks and naive buyers abound, fraud is rampant, unscrupulous companies don’t give a damn about their “customers.”
Whenever there’s big federal money in something, the above story repeats over and over.
Somehow, gullible people (as well as gullible authors at Time magazine) want to believe human nature has changed, people will be honest, and nobody is hustling to make a crooked buck.
and no one things about the gazillion of likely leaks from the gazillion of panel attachment points drilled through your previously leak-proof roof ... and when your roof DOES need to be replaced, all of the rooftop solar has to be completely removed and then completely put back ...
“Solar can work and pay for itself albeit over time.”
Over time is when the solar fails long before it pays off. I’ve never seen a solar system and all its associated costs pay off. Not once. Not calling you a liar by any means, but without knowing all the facts and figures I’m not convinced your solar system paid off.
As far as all those solar fields, they were mandated by law. Along with those mandates, the taxpayers were fleeced to pay for them. Energy companies HATE them. They detract from the business at hand and cause investments to be taken away from known working energy production systems. I worked with Duke Energy, Xcel Energy, and State legislatures on all that crap. It is all a fleecing in one way or another.
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